Bad Habits
by DaseyRulesTheWorld
Summary: All the McDonald-Venturi teens have thier share of secrets and bad habits. But what will happen when they all collide? DARK.
1. The beginning

AN: I wrote this story because I've had bad dreams and trouble falling asleep the past few days because Thanksgiving Break threw me way off my sleeping schedule. I feel dark lately too so I'm making this story dark. I don't want that to sound creepy. This story is going to be **very dark! **So if you don't like those types of stories don't read this one.

Casey woke up to start her first day back to school after winter break. She got out of bed and saw snow falling outside of her window. It seemed to be like a bed of snow. She went out into the hall to go down and eat some breakfast.

"None of us have school today Casey, they're all closed." Lizzie said to Casey. She was holding some clothes and a towel to take a shower.

"That sucks. We were going to be talking about the prehistoric era in history and starting a new book in English." Casey said. Her face fell to a frown.

"That's what tomorrow is for Casey." Lizzie said. Marti stepped out of the bathroom and into her own room. "I'm gonna take a shower now." She walked into the bathroom. Casey heard the water turn on when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

George was already gone for some case he had. Nora mixed up a pancake batter in the kitchen. "Casey I have a favor to ask you." Nora said. "Can you watch the kids while George and I are gone?" She asked.

"Sure." Casey answered. Derek came stumbling down the stairs. "Morning Derek. Have fun at the party last night?" Casey asked sarcastically. Derek grunted as he took a seat in his chair.

Casey helped her mom finish preparing breakfast. Derek couldn't stand all of the noise blasting in his head. He felt like he was going to throw up. He only had two beers at the party last night. His first two in forever, but only two.

He dashed up to the bathroom to see Lizzie walking to her room. He locked the door behind him and hoped nobody would hear him dealing with a hangover. Casey was the only one who knew because she came to pick him up from Ellie's house last night.

Lizzie quickly got dressed. She opened her window. It was freezing but she couldn't take a chance of anybody else smelling it. She opened up her brand new box and pulled out a fresh cigarette.

Her lighter was almost empty. She'd been doing this for about three months. She lit it and started to smoke. She turned on her hairdryer to push the smell out the window. It was her worst habit.

She knew it was bad for her but didn't care. Only two a day. One when she woke up and one after dinner. It could be worse. She heard someone walking outside the hall. "Lizzie, you've been drying your hair for 10 minutes. What's taking so long?" Edwin asked.

Lizzie's hair had air dried already. "I'll be out in a minute." Lizzie responded. She rubbed the cigarette against the sole of one of her shoes and tossed it out the window. She pulled the brush through her hair quickly and opened the door.

"What were you saying Edwin?" Lizzie asked. She appeared innocent in her doorway.

"Breakfast is almost ready. Nora wants you downstairs because she's going on that business trip today remember?" Edwin asked his step-sister. Lizzie nodded and they walked down the stairs.

He reminded her of Casey. They had similar personalities and looks. He could tell that they were close. Derek closed his bedroom door behind him. They payed no attention and kept walking.

"That's my cab. I'll see you guys in a few days." Nora said. She hugged everyone and pulled her suitcase out the door with her. Casey made sure the door was locked and returned to the table.

"I'm in charge until George come back from work today." Casey announced to everyone.

"I don't understand it. I'm six months older than you, yet they treat you more like an adult than me." Derek said. He was coming down the stairs in a groggy mood. He hadn't had beer in 5 years.

He remembered the first time he ever sipped it. When he was twelve his dad took him to a baseball game over summer break. His dad let him take two sips of his beer. It tasted terrible. But at the party, it didn't matter.

Looking at all the food now made him cringe. One of his greatest loves was working against him. "Maybe at the next party you won't go so crazy." Casey lectured.

"Stop screaming at me." Derek said. His hair was having trouble keeping it's perfect shape that it was in every day.

"What's wrong Smerek?" Marti asked. She was barely ten and hadn't learned about drugs and alcohol in school yet.

"He's sick." Lizzie said. She knew to be cautious with her words. "Derek's having a hangover." She explained.

"What's a hangover?" Marti asked.

"A hangover is when you drink something really bad and the next morning you are really sick." Casey explained.

"You mean like margaritas?" Marti asked. "Or maybe Champaign?" She obviously knew some of what they were talking about. But not too much which relieved all of them.

"I actually had two cans of beer at the party last night." Derek said. He started to go back up the stairs for some rest because it felt like a dance club in his head.

"Not so fast Der." Casey commented. "I think you should explain to Marti how bad it is to drink."

"Smarti?" Derek said. She nodded. "Alcohol can kill you and the only reason I drank last night was because this girl, Maggie, was really hot." He explained and started walking again. Casey cleared her throat. "I should have known better because I feel awful."

Derek returned to his room. Just thinking about breakfast made his stomach twist and turn. He got under the sheets and rested his head. The clinks of dishes from breakfast going into the dishwasher were heard. He decided to take a long needed power nap.

Lizzie and Marti went outside to play in the snow while Edwin said he needed Casey's help for a project. Once they reached the top of the stairs Casey pulled Edwin into the games closet.

"Casey this is wrong. We're step siblings. And you're like 4 years older than me." Edwin said with a tiny hint of guilt.

"This was all your idea. Now I'm completely hooked on it. Don't tell me you don't enjoy it two?" She asked him.

"Well it is a lot of fun." Edwin agreed. They both smiled. They shared a giggle on the way to Casey's room. Derek was fast asleep in his bed and didn't detect a thing. Casey made sure the door was locked behind them.

She sat close to Edwin on the bed and reapplied her lip balm so her lips wouldn't be chapped. They leaned their heads in and kissed eachother. They didn't waste time with the romantic stuff because they had a small time frame.

Edwin slipped off Casey's sweater. "I'm glad you started this." Casey said as she rested her head on her pillow. Edwin smiled. He took off his shirt and kissed her again. They never went any further than that.

Edwin gently pressed one hand against Casey's right breast. She moved I down to her stomach. Casey arched her back a little when Edwin slid his tongue into her mouth. She pulled her own tongue back and stopped kissing him.

"You know we can't have any form of sex, including oral, because you aren't legal yet and I am." Casey explained. She sat up next to him and hung her feet from the side of the bed.

"I know. It's just we get to the exact same place every time. I promise not to tell if you promise not to tell." Edwin said with an innocent smile.

"Edwin!" Casey said. "I'm not going to break the law, especially with my step brother." She told him. There was a knock on the door. Casey pushed Edwin off and underneath his bed. It was Emily.

"Hey Casey. Lizzie let me in. My parents went out for some lunch date today or something. Can I hang out here while they're gone?" Emily asked.

"Of course Em." Casey replied. She motioned for her to sit on the bed. "What's going on?" Casey asked.

"Not much." Emily answered. "You?"

"I do have a problem." Casey said. She held Emily's hands. "I like this guy, but he's a few years younger than me. What should I do?" Casey asked her.

"Well you should go out with him if you like him." Emily answered. She placed her hands on Casey's shoulders. "I shouldn't need to tell you that."

"But it's more than that." Casey said. "What if he and I wanted to…" She asked.

"I'm surprised that you even need to think about it. You always told me that you wouldn't have sex until you're married." Emily said. Emily walked over and picked up Edwin's shirt. "I'm guessing that's what this is about."

"Well what do you think?" Casey asked.

"I think that you should look into your heart and see what it tells you to do." Emily advised. She tossed the shirt onto the bed and left to go see Derek.

Edwin came out of the bed. "That was close. What were you thinking, asking her that?" He asked.

"I think that I need to think over our relationship." Casey answered. She pulled out her diary as Edwin sat on the bed. "You're going to sit here while I think through my thoughts and feelings and try to organize them?" She asked him.

"Why not?" He asked her.

Emily brought Derek a glass of water to drink. She saw him at the party last night but didn't think two drinks would affect him much. "How did this happen?" Emily asked.

"Hot girl. That's pretty much it." Derek answered. He didn't feel like actually telling the story.

"I should've known." Emily said.

Lizzie and Marti came inside covered with snow. They brushed it off and walked up to their rooms.

Edwin heard them and looked at the clock. It was almost time for lunch. "What are we gonna do about lunch?" He pointed to the clock.

"We can go and make it now if you want." She said. She placed her diary down and started going down the stairs.

"Ok I'll just get dressed." He said quietly to her. She was gone when he opened up to the page she was writing in. "Let's see what she said."

"I can't decide whether to have sex with Edwin or not. I want to save myself for marriage, but it just seems like forever from now. But, maybe, well, yes. I think it is time."

Edwin smiled and pumped his fist in the air before running down the stairs. He saw her bending down and looking through the fridge. He had to smile big because he just couldn't help himself.

"So what are we cooking today?" Edwin asked. Casey closed the door and opened the cabinet.

"I'm not sure. What do you want?" She asked him. He sat at the island and thought through his options. He stood next to her and peered inside the cabinet. They heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

It was Marti carrying her monkey Sir Monks A lot. She was smiling and sat on the couch to watch cartoons on a Monday morning, which she only got to watch during summer because she was at school.

"What about this?" Edwin pulled out an almost empty case of peanut butter.

"I'm not sure if that will be enough." Casey put it back up of the shelf.

"Then what about maybe." Edwin opened the fridge and pulled out some bacon and tomatoes. "BLT's?"

"Perfect." Casey exclaimed.

"I would love some bacon right now." Derek said appearing in the kitchen out of nowhere. "I'll take mine extra crispy." He went and sat in his chair and changed the channel to find football coming in from the U.S.

Casey rolled her eyes and sighed. "Whatever. How's that hangover of yours?" She asked in an icy tone.

"Fine." He told her carelessly. Casey began heating up a pan to cook the bacon in as Edwin pulled out a cutting board and a knife.

"Tonight I'll be seeing you, right?" Derek asked Edwin.

Edwin gulped and looked over at Casey anxiously. "Of course." He answered.

Ok, do you want to slice lettuce or tomatoes first?" Casey asked. She held the handle of the knife out to him. He took it too quickly. Casey made a small sound from the pain and opened her hand.

A small cut on her forefinger. A drop of blood started to seep out. "That's not so bad." Casey said. She walked over to the sink and started to wash her hands.

"I'll get you a bandage." Edwin said. She ran up the stairs and through the bathroom door. The medicine cabinet had one box of bandages inside of it. He took one that was the perfect size for Casey's finger.

He turned to walk down the stairs but stopped. He turned to the mirror and lifted the side of his shirt to show a bruise from what must have been a sport related injury. Lizzie appeared behind him with a dropped jaw.

"Edwin what happened to you?" She asked. Edwin tossed his shirt down and turned to her.

"You can't tell anyone. Especially Casey because she hasn't seen this yet." He blurted to her.

"How would Casey see it? It's underneath your shirt." She said. Two seconds later she gasped. "You're the mystery guy she can't stop talking about. Edwin! You're dating my older sister?" She asked with anger.

"Uhh……Yes." Edwin said. Lizzie chased him down the stairs. "Casey save me!" He yelled while ducking behind Casey. Lizzie stood before her sister mad and jealous.

"What's going on?" Casey asked. Marti went over to Emily's house with Emily to go and play with Dimmy for a while.

"You two are dating!" Lizzie said to them. Derek turned in his chair. "You guys are like three years apart in age, and you're siblings."

"Step-siblings." Edwin corrected from behind his girlfriend/step-sister.

"I knew it all along." Derek stood up and started to walk to the kitchen. "Shell we settle this over lunch?" Derek picked up a sandwich and took a bite. "Mmm. Just the way I like it."

"Come on Liz. Let's just eat and then we can talk this out." Casey handed her an empty plate.

"Fine. I'm sorry Case." Lizzie took the plate and hugged her sister. She was having these types of mood swings lately. It was strange, but she was a teenager with hormones.

They all sat and ate in silence. Today was really strange. They all had their secrets and didn't want to share them in any way, shape, or form.


	2. Monster

Lizzie cleared everything and cleaned the dishes after lunch. The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Everybody minded their own business and stayed in their rooms. Edwin snuck down the stairs at 12 o'clock midnight.

He crept into the backyard and saw Derek sitting in a lawn chair skimming through a magazine about skiing. Edwin tried to tiptoe back inside but Derek grabbed his shoulder and twisted him around.

"Oh, Hi Derek. I was just going to grab a sweater." Edwin lied as he tried to get an escape from Derek's grip that was crushing his shoulder.

"Like I'm gonna believe that. Come over here and let's chat Ed." Derek pulled Edwin into a lawn chair like the one that Derek was in.

"Oh I love our chats." Edwin said sarcastically. Derek clenched his hand into a fist. He held it close to Edwin's face.

"You've told Casey haven't you? About what's been going on." Derek said. "Haven't you?" He yelled furiously.

"No. Casey has no idea." Edwin said with fear. Derek swung and hit Edwin in his stomach. He bent over and couched. Derek punched him again and Edwin fell to the wood porch and crawled into the grass.

Derek kicked him twice before Edwin started to puque a bit. "Derek!" Edwin yelled. Derek stopped and kneeled by him. "Why do you do this to me?" He whispered.

"Because it' just what I do." Derek answered. He began to walk inside the house, leaving Edwin crawled in the backyard coughing up blood.

15 minutes later Edwin crept up the stairs. He stopped to stare at Casey's bedroom door before retreating to his own. He locked the door and moved his dresser so it would be barricaded. It kept getting worse every time.

Edwin kept his hands over his stomach as he layed under the sheets of his bed. He heard a tiny knock coming from his door. He sat up and worried about it being Derek. He kept having nightmares about him.

"It's Lizzie." Lizzie's voice called from the other side of the door. Edwin stepped towards the door and moved his dresser over. He touched his hand to the doorknob. "Edwin. Let me in." She told him. Edwin opened the door and Lizzie sat on his bed.

"What do you want Lizzie?" Edwin asked innocently. "It's past midnight you should be asleep."

"So should you." She bickered.

Edwin gulped and winced with pain when Lizzie rested a hand on the bruise that she saw earlier. "I saw what he did to you. I saw all of it." Lizzie whispered to him. "Why don't you do anything about it?"

"Derek's doing this before I tell, can you imagine about what he'll do AFTER I tell?" Edwin asked in dismay. He clutched his hands around his stomach.

"I don't want him to seriously hurt you. Trust me I can take him on." Lizzie tried to assure her stepbrother. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Edwin hugged her back, tucking him stomach in so it wouldn't touch her.

When their heads leaned out Lizzie kissed him almost instantly. Edwin pushed her off and stood up. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked her. He began pacing.

"Since when do you swear?" She asked him

"Since now." He told her.

"I just kissed you. That's all." She said innocently.

"That's a big deal though. I'm dating your sister." Edwin explained.

"She doesn't have to know." Lizzie stood up. "This can be between us." She tried to kiss him again. Edwin turned his head so her lips landed on his cheek. "Why won't you kiss me?" She asked.

"Because I'm not attracted to you." Edwin answered.

"Why, how come no guy likes me?" She asked him.

"Maybe it's because you come on like a cougar." Edwin said angrily at her.

"How dare you say that!" She snapped back. There was a knock on the door. "Oh shit, I gotta hide!"

"Now you swear too?" Edwin asked. Lizzie smirked and ran into his closet. He walked to the door and saw Casey in a simple nightgown. "What are you doing here?" He asked her.

"I thought you read my diary. I made my decision." Casey closed and locked the door behind her. "You ready?"

"My room doesn't seem very suited for this. What about your room?" Edwin asked.

"But everyone would hear us…I got it! Follow me." She grabbed his hand and they headed down the stairs. "What about here?" She motioned her hand towards the couch.

"I guess that'll work." He said. They sat down close to eachother. All the lights on the first floor were off so they were illuminated by the moonlight. "Casey just one question." Edwin said.

"Ask me anything. You will be my first after all." She said excitedly.

"Why are you so eager to do this?" He said. Casey's face fell.

"Don't you want to do this?" She asked him with a furrowed brow.

"No. Yes. Kinda. I mean, you're beautiful in every way I could imagine, but it doesn't exactly feel right rushing into things." Edwin told her.

"You know what Ed." Casey thought for a second. "You're absolutely right. I was thinking now would be a perfect time, but there is no perfect time. Let's just take the next step." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

Edwin resumed the position above Casey shirtless and they kissed. After a few lasting kisses Edwin placed a hand on her left hip and the other on her shoulder. Casey held her hands tightly on Edwin's upper back. This was the farthest they'd gone.

Edwin's hands reached to Casey's mid-thigh where her nightgown ended. He started to slide it up. Casey giggled and watched his hands reach her hips and stop. "Is something wrong?" Casey asked.

"No I just want to take in the memory of your pink thong." Edwin laughed.

"Wait until you see my matching bra." Casey said as she finished removing her nightgown. "I think we should stop here."

"I think you're right." Edwin agreed he put his hands across her flat stomach. "Can I touch you up higher?" He asked shyly.

"Only a little." Casey seemed nervous. Edwin gently placed his hands on her bra and kept them still. They were both thinking how crazy it was that they were step-siblings. They kissed a bit more before they heard a man's scream.

It was George who had finally gotten home from work and turned the light on to find Edwin and Casey in the middle of their kisses. They screamed as well before pulling the throw blanket to cover themselves.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" George asked while covering his face with his hands.

"We weren't doing anything." Casey lied. She grabbed her night gown and pulled it over her underwear.

"Well it sure looked like something." George seemed furious. "You guys go to your rooms. I'm not punishing you."

"What?" Edwin asked with growing joy.

"I'm not punishing you guys now because I want Nora to be here so she and I can come up with it together. Now go to your rooms!" He explained to them.

Casey and Edwin went up the stairs. "Next time we'll be more careful." Edwin said.

"If there a next time. George seemed furious." Casey replied.

They shared a hug before going to their rooms.

Casey heard a door open about ten minutes later. "What?" She scrambled out of bed and into the hallway. She saw Derek stumbling into his room with two girls around his arms. "Derek where have you been?" she asked.

The two girls sat on his bed. "Out. I met Abbey and Caroline and they needed a place to stay." He told her. They shared a wave with Casey.

"I need to talk to you in private." Casey pulled Derek into her bedroom. "Where have you been so late at night and where did you find these two innocent girls?" She asked madly.

"This coming from the girl who almost fucked my step brother? They were out at one of the clubs. We danced, drank shots, had sex. It's been an exhausting night. Later Case." Derek tried to leave.

"No, you're not going anywhere. Breathe on me."

"Casey."

"I said breathe mister." Derek exhaled on Casey. "Holy shit, what were you guys drinking?"

"Tequila. My first try with it."

"What have you tried?"

"Let's see. Beer, Wine, Tequila, Hard Lemonade. Just the usual stuff."

"Usual stuff? What if you got alcohol poisoning?"

"I don't care unless it happens." Derek walked back to his room. "I'm back. Casey's a bit of a fun sucker when it comes to, pretty much everything."

"Well that's alright. Now, back to business. It's usually 400 a night but you're just so irresistible. 300 each." Abbey said.

"I only have 100, I don't have a luxurious allowance." Derek held a wad of money in his hand.

"Fine." Caroline got off the bed and put a hand in Derek's hair. "Then you need to make up for the rest physically." Caroline kissed him.

"Can you guys sleep a little quieter?" Lizzie knocked on Derek's door. They just couldn't shut up.

"What do you want? I'm trying to sleep." Derek said.

"Not very well." Lizzie said.

"We need to go now Derek. Our boss is probably waiting." Abbey said. She and Caroline walked out into the hallway while fixing their hair and clothes.

"Please feel free to not come back." Lizzie said while glaring at them. They walked down the stairs while waving goodbye. "What are you thinking Derek? Prostitutes? Alcohol? Beating Edwin?" She covered her mouth.

"What?" Derek asked.

"Nothing. I'm going to bed now. Sleepwalking." Lizzie said before yawning and rushing to her room. She tried to close the door but Derek caught it and stepped inside.

"What are you talking about?" Derek sat on the bed. Lizzie squirmed a bit before Derek put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said gently.

"How do I know? I saw what you did to Edwin tonight." Lizzie glowered at him while brushing his hand away.

"It's not that bad." Derek said.

"Yes it is. Don't you care about your little brother?" Lizzie asked with her puppy dog eyes.

"Not exactly." Derek opened the door to leave.

"Are you kidding me? What you do to him, it's just terrible. You are a complete waste of a brother." Lizzie yelled at him.

"That's enough." Derek slapped Lizzie. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Derek stopped at the doorway to Lizzie's next words.

"You're nothing but a monster." She said before pushing him out of the room and locking the door.


	3. Another Bet

AN: I am so glad to get back to ff and work on my stories! I have pretty much run out of angst and inspiration for this story but I'm not gonna give up on it. But if anybody has any ideas I am open to hear them. Just put them in the reviews or message me. Sorry for taking forever to update, also.

Derek sat up in his bed until the sun rose early that morning. School was going to start in 3 hours. He couldn't get Lizzie's words out of his head. "You're a monster." kept replaying like a broken record.

He stood and stared at his reflection in the mirror on his door. He lifted his shirt to reveal a nasty scar on his back. "This is all that bitch's fault." Derek muttered angrily. He didn't care though, Edwin never met Uncle Ted. Edwin never got punished like Derek.

The only person other than Derek who had seen it was Casey. When they took Marti to the pool she noticed the scar from about 10 years ago. Derek just passed it off as a hockey injury, he always had plenty of those. Derek became enraged and hit his fist to the door.

George had called Nora about Edwin and Casey's antics and they both had no idea how this had happened or how to handle it. He was to wake in an hour to take the kids who couldn't drive to school. He was dreaming about a baby that was crying. It had Casey's hair and Edwin's eyes.

He couldn't wait for Nora's business meeting to end today. It would end just before dinner and then she and George could talk on the phone and think about what to do. But at least they were protected, Nora had taken Casey for birth control when she turned 16, and George made sure Edwin and Derek had condoms in their wallets for those 'just in case' moments.

But still, they were step-siblings, it was just plain weird.

Casey woke to the sound of her ipod plugged into the clock. Her shuffle put on Hot Mess by: Ashley Tisdale. It totally reminded her of her relationship with Edwin. She was so excited to go to school and just get out of the house for a while, and then maybe go shopping with Emily and get her input on everything. She chose her outfit for the day and walked out in the hallway just in time to bump into Derek.

"Could you watch where you're going?" Derek asked in a grumpy manor.

"Jeez, what's your problem?" Casey snapped back.

"I didn't sleep last night." Derek complained.

"Serves you right." Lizzie said as she passed the two of them. She glowered at Derek before heading down for breakfast.

"Note to self: avoid Lizzie." Derek said.

"Whatever." Casey said. "I'm taking a shower." She walked down the hallway and closed the bathroom door behind her.

Edwin opened his door and walked down to where Derek was. He quickly backed towards the stairs before taking off at full sprint.

Derek just rolled his eyes and went through his usual morning routine.

Casey opened her locker to grab her 1st period supplies. She wasn't looking forward to the new chapter in her AP calc. class. It was the hardest in the book. Once her few things were gathered up she walked over to Emily's locker.

"Hey Em, What are you doing after school today?" Casey asked her best friend.

"Nothing. Why?" Emily opened up her locker.

"I was wondering if you wanted to head to the mall or something?" Casey asked.

"Sounds fun, fall clothes should be on clearance. Perfect for the in between spring and winter weather." Emily answered.

"Great." Casey answered. She checked her watch. "Yikes, only 2 minutes until class. See you at lunch." She darted off, passing Derek with Sam.

"So they were totally ok with you not paying them?" Sam asked Derek.

"Well no girl can resist the Venturi charm." Derek noticed Casey heading down to her class. "Not even Casey." He added.

"What's that mean?" Sam asked skeptically and concerned. He didn't want Casey involved with Derek with his new drinking habits.

"Well, after I led the girls out I was in my room and I heard a pair of footsteps going down the stairs and then George apparently caught the two of them making out on the couch right before Edwin took off her bra." Derek laughed a little at the thought.

Sam remembered when he was dating Casey, she always seemed so innocent. But underneath all of her innocence was her virginity, and Sam was the lucky one to have it. "There's no way he's gonna tap that." Sam said. "Totally age inappropriate."

"Well every guy's gotta start somewhere, and I guess Edwin picked a loser like her." Derek laughed some more.

"I just hope they both know what they're doing." Sam said. That bell rang, meaning they had to get with class. "See ya."

"You too man." Derek high–fived Sam before leaving.

By the time lunch rolled around, Derek had been doing some serious thinking (for once in a long time). He was thinking about… hockey. He was thinking about the body checking the team was practicing. It was really sneaky, so the guy they were bumping into would probably hit the guy with the guy with the puck. Good practice when they met up last weekend.

Casey looked over at him suspiciously, she heard a rumor from Ralph about her and Edwin. Her relationship was none of his business, and she intended to make sure he knew it. After finishing her lunch she waited for Derek to get up.

She walked over to the garbage can where he was. "I need to talk to you." She told him sternly. He didn't pay any attention to her. "Now."

"What?"

"In private." She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the hallway. Too many people would be listening in the cafetorium (I love how they call it that). "Why do you have to get in my business?" She asked him.

"You always get in my business." Derek pointed out to her. "What are you talking about anyway?"

"What do you think? Edwin and I."

"Oh I'm so sorry for telling one person."

"One person?" Casey raised a suspicious eyebrow at him.

"Maybe 2 or 3." She kept her eyebrow up. "Ok fine. I told 4 people."

"What gives you the right to do that?"

"I'm me."

"Well what if I told Emily about you being in Lizzie's room late last night?" She asked. Derek didn't feel threatened at all, nothing had gone on. "I overheard her talking to Edwin about it."

"What did you hear?" He asked while slamming her against a locker, he could only imagine what would happen if he knew about him slapping Lizzie.

"Just like you went in and threatened her. Did you threaten to rape her or something?" Casey noticed a teacher enter the hall. They waited for the teacher to walk by. "What did you do to my little sister to make her glare at you like that this morning?" Casey asked in a low voice.

"I did nothing." He whispered. He let go of her and let her off the locker. "All you McDonald girls are such drama queens. 'George made a mean comment about my dress.' Tears. 'Emily was flirting with Max.' Tears. 'Jamie broke up with me.' Tears. Notice how you're all boy crazy too." Derek insulted her.

"Well what about you Venturi 'men'." She said with air quotes. "'I have to clean out the garage.' And 'Nora made me take down my precious thong poster.' And 'Derek has been making do his chores since I turned 9.' What about that?"

"You're problems are a lot stupider than ours." Derek said with confidence.

"Oh please."

"Wanna bet?"

"You know I don't bet anymore."

"Right. Cause little Casey's so afraid of losing to me again." He said in a baby voice, trying to belittling her.

"Let's make a deal."

"Give me your best shot."

"Ok, how about" Casey started. She tried to think of something she could do easily.

"I'm waiting." Derek tempted her.

"I bet I can stop complaining longer than you can give up girls."

"Easy." Derek smiled. "What am I gonna win?"

"If you win, I'll make you lunch until spring break." She never said they had to be _good _lunches, just lunches. "And when I win, I get to set you up on a date with any girl I choose." She smirked at him.

"Not bad. I'm in." He held out his hand for her to shake and she took it gladly.

'_Piece of cake.' _They were thinking as they took off in separate direction in the hall. Kids started leaving lunch and heading towards their lockers.

The final bell of the day rang. Derek, Casey, and Emily all headed into the parking lot. Derek was joining them to the mall so they could keep an eye on eachother for the bet. "What were you saying about this guy again?" Emily asked.

"It's so hard, you see-" Casey was cut off by Derek.

"Am I suspecting a complaint there Casey?" Derek was sure he would win this.

"No." Casey said innocently. "Let's talk about something else Emily." Casey said. She and Emily were sitting in the backseat of the car while Derek was driving, she knew just how to make Derek get his mind on girls, and there would be plenty at the mall. He could still look at them, just no flirting, getting numbers, asking them out, and so forth. So basically, he could look, just not touch.

"Wasn't Linda's shirt so slutty today?" Casey asked loudly and obviously.

"Totally." Emily agreed.

"I mean, you could see most of her chest. And don't even get me started on Nikki's skirt." Casey had to giggle at Derek biting his lip from thinking about girls.

"You can have girls thrown at me, when I set my mind to it I'm like a wall." Derek parked the car.

"How would you know?" Casey asked. "You've never set your mind to anything other than girls." She smirked at him while unbuckling her seatbelt.

"Oh, shut up." Derek said to her.

Casey was able to keep her mouth shut about her problems and Derek was able to keep himself from flirting with girls. Emily left after 3 stores to baby-sit her little brother. But Casey decided to keep going to de-stress and hopefully win the bet.

They stopped at the food court and ordered some pizza. He was being such a gentleman and carrying her bags for her. But he was only doing it so maybe the girls would think he wasn't on the market.

"This is fun." She giggled after Derek got a sauce mustache.

"It is." He agreed. She was unaware of some sauce on the side of her mouth too.

"That girl at the register is pretty cute, you should go talk to her." She tried to persuade him, but he didn't take the bet.

"No thanks. I'd rather listen to you complain about all of your problems. Go ahead, I' all ears." He pushed her.

"No thanks, things are going just fine. Thanks anyway."

"I always win Casey." He gave her a smirk.

"Not always."

A girl from a different school came up to them pretty soon after they entered the next store. "Hey." She leaned against a wall by Derek.

"Hey." He said weakly, trying to send her a message.

"You look pretty familiar. Do I know you?"

"I don't think so." Derek noticed Casey watching.

"Oh, I see you're with your girlfriend. Maybe some other time." She finally left. Derek left out a relieved sigh. She walked up to Casey. "He's such a great catch. You're so lucky."

"Huh?" Casey was confused.

"Your boyfriend."

"My boyfriend?" Casey was still confused. Then she realized that he was using her to get out of talking to girls. Maybe she could use this to her advantage. "Oh! You mean Derek, he's so sweet."

"See ya."

"You too." She went up to Derek and gave him a smirk. "Hey sweetie. Could I borrow a few dollars?" She asked in her sweetest voice.

"Uh, okay." He answered. He was nervous and confused. Then he remembered the other girl. "Here." He held out a few dollars for her.

"Thanks Der." She smiled and purchased the shorts she was looking at. She developed a plan in her head to make him lose the bet. They decided to start heading home.


	4. winning, cheating, and lightswitches

AN: Sorry this chapter is super long. I always wanted to try writing a Dasey one shot, but I'm not sure how good it would turn pout. I mean, I've written a few, but they all sucked. So I kinda wrote one in this chapter without changing the whole story to Dasey. I also added a little twist. This chapters dedicated to anneryn7.

Casey and Derek made a deal to have Emily and Sam keep tabs on them for the bet for the rest of the week.

Casey's report – Friday.

1st Period: AP calculus

Casey kept talking about how great things would be when she won the bet. Going through girls Derek would hate to go out with.

2nd: French.

Casey was quiet and took her test like a well mannered student.

3rd: Consumer Ed

Today she gave her presentation on how she supported breastfeeding over formula. She didn't complain at all.

4th: P.E. and 5th: Lunch

Derek and Casey had P.E. and Lunch together so they could see eachother.

6ht: Humanities.

Casey was really annoyed with the troublemaker of the class, TJ, but she kept her mouth shut.

7th: Sociology

Derek and Casey have this class together.

8th: Physics

Casey was so excited when we got to do an experiment today.

Derek's Report – Friday

1st: Pre-calculus + Trig

Derek couldn't help but stare at the hot substitute teacher. But he hardly spoke to the girls in class.

2nd: Creative Writing

All we did this class was sit and come up with plots for a movie, then write it in book form.

3rd: Anatomy

Luckily, for Derek, the class focus was on muscles of the foot.

6th: Spanish

Senora Sanchez made Derek sit in front of the class, and away from the girls, after he kept cracking jokes and cheating on the test.

8th: Auto Shop

There are no girls in auto shop, but he was still free to gossip with the guys about the school hotties. There wasn't any rule in the bet that he couldn't talk about girls when they weren't around or anything.

After dinner George decided to watch a movie in his basement bedroom. Marti was next door. The kids were all in their rooms. Lizzie sucked in a breath of nicotine. She had bumped up to 3 a day because of all the new stress with keeping Edwin's secret.

She hated having to keep her open when it was only 30 degrees outside, but she couldn't risk somebody smelling anything. She finished and put it out, then tossed it out. When she was going out to play with Marti she would stuff them in her pocket and then sneaking them into the house and hide them in the trash can.

Casey was in her room. Her plan was in motion. She was in her closet looking through her clothes. She pulled out her babe raider top. "What would work with this?"" She looked through her jeans. "Aha!" She pulled a cute denim skirt out. It was long enough for her to still look respectable, but short enough for her to reach her goal.

There was a knock on her door. "Uh," Casey said to herself. She didn't want someone else to see her like this until her plan was in effect. "I'm, uh, not decent." She said to the door. Edwin opened it and walked right in like it was no big deal.

"Is that outfit for me?" He asked her.

Casey turned to him. "Edwin! Did you not hear what I just said?"

"Yeah!" Edwin answered embarrassed by his excitement.

"You're so crazy." She smiled and kissed him lightly. She felt bad that he thought she was dressing like this for him.

"So what's with the outfit?" He asked in a toned down voice.

"I'm just going through some things in my closet." Casey told him. It was the truth. She was looking through things in her closet to help her win the bet.

"Oh." Edwin was a little disappointed but wouldn't show that to Casey.

"Could I have a little privacy? I haven't even decided if I want to wear this or not." She caught herself before saying 'tonight.' So she wasn't leading Edwin on. When she did give herself to him she didn't want to be dressed like a slut.

"Ok. I'll be in my room." He left the room after taking one last glance at her outfit. It sent shivers down his back.

"Close one." Casey said to herself. She decided to only put on simple makeup. Some concealer, lip gloss, and mascara. She didn't want to look like a tramp either. She looked at herself seriously in the mirror. "Truman always wanted to see this outfit, too bad for him." She gave herself a smirk.

She curled her hair a little bit so it looked wavy. She put on her robe and knocked on Derek's bedroom door. "Enter at your own risk." He answered. Casey knew he always said little phrases meant come in. She came in and locked his door behind her.

"What are you doing?" He asked curiously.

"Is it okay if I stay in here for awhile?" She asked him before sitting in his computer chair. She saw the dirty clothes and hockey gear piled up on the floor by his closet. She felt an urge to clean it up.

"Why?" He closed his magazine and sat up.

"Because my room is just so hot that I can't take it." She put a sexy emphasis on hot.

"It's winter you know?" He wasn't aware of what she was doing.

"I know. It's kinda hot in here too." She lowered her voice a little bit. Derek kept himself from smirking. He liked this attitude.

"You are wearing a bathrobe over your clothes." He pointed out to her.

"You're right." She untied her robe. She slid it off her shoulders and let it fall off her body.

"What are you wearing?" Derek couldn't help but stare at her all but exposed body.

"Just a little something." She smiled at him seductively.

"Little is right." He looked at her up and down. He was aware of what she was drying to do, but he had to win the bet.

"Do you like it?" she stepped towards him.

"Maybe." He said to her.

"Well I'm right here." She stepped closer. He stood up.

"You're just trying to win the bet." He told her.

"Maybe." She stepped forward again so their chests were almost touching.

"Damn you're sexy." He let out while looking down at her pale pink lips.

"Aha!" Casey said to herself. "I win. Hahaha!" She claimed in excitement.

"No." Derek wrapped a hand around her waist. "I win." He flung her up against the wall. He stared deeply into her eyes. "You don't know how much I've wanted this." He kissed her hard.

She remained motionless and pressed against the wall. She pushed him off. "De-rek!" She yelled at him.

"What?" He asked her.

"Get off of me." She demanded. He let go of her waist. "We can't do this."

"Because?" He asked.

"Because it's wrong." She said.

"Oh, it's wrong." He put his lips by her ear and whispered.

"Yeah." She tried to keep her guard up, it was slowly failing her.

"What else?" He let his hot breath hit her neck.

"It's also bad." She said as his lips brushed across her neck. "And forbidden, and we're not supposed to." Her voice slowly became a turn on to Derek.

"So we shouldn't do it?" He asked her softly. She nodded. "But that doesn't mean we can't." He said as he looked into her eyes again. She tilted her head away from him in resistance, but she couldn't. She kissed him as hard as she could.

He pressed her further into the wall. Her had slid up and down the wall in search of the light switch. Her fingers barley reached it but she was able to turn the lights off. There was still a dim light from his nightstand.

"You know Casey; this outfit is not your style. Way too slutty. I think you need to just take it off." He told her with his hand at her belt loops and slightly moving upwards.

"Too bad." She declined his offer. "You're gonna have to convince me you're worthy of my virginity." She teased him.

"Well I already know you're worthy of mine." He smirked at her.

"Wait. You're a virgin?" She was surprised by this new information.

"Only to you and me. To everybody else I've gotten so much ass that I'm like the seats at my cafeteria table." He explained. His cafeteria table was popular, people were always in a rush to get their first because the seats went fast.

"good to know." She nodded her head slowly. "Well I won the bet. Now I get to set you up on a date with any girl I pick." She smiled confidently.

"So who are you gonna set me up with?" He asked with his mouth close to hers. She gave him a slow kiss.

"I'll have to make some calls." She smirked at him before hitting the switch and stopping their little session.

"It's not gonna be like, Nora or Lizzie, or something?" Derek asked suspiciously. But of course he knew in his head who she'd pick. He just loved to tease her.

"Oh shut up." She said playfully. She pushed him back and onto his bed. Everytime she did that she was always tempted to dive down and grab his shirt and kiss his attractive face.

She unlocked the door and walked to her room. She had to set up a date for Derek. Little did she know, Edwin was at the top of the stairs watching her go to her room with a little hobble in her step.

He went into Lizzie's room. "Yes?" She asked him.

"I can't believe Casey." He told her.

"What? She came to her senses and realized that she shouldn't date someone that lives in the same house?" She joked.

Edwin laughed at how wrong she was. "Nope." He said. "She's cheating on me, with Derek." He told her.

"What?" She was shocked. "No way." She gave Edwin a comforting hug.

"Well that's why I'm here. I need a favor." He said.

"Yeah?" She was suspicious.

"Would you maybe help me get back at her?" He asked.

"Meaning?" She leaned back a little.

"Kiss me." He said bluntly.

"No thanks." She turned around and continued her project for math.

"Fine." He left and knocked on Casey's door.

"Come in." She answered. "Hey Edwin!" She greeted him.

"Hi." He said.

"I need to talk to you." She motioned for him to sit next to her on the bed.

"Yes?" He asked.

"I'm breaking up with you." She just let it out. "It's nothing you did. It's just with George catching us together, and the age difference. It's just weird." She tried to give him some legitimate reasons for leaving.

"And Derek." He muttered under his breath.

"Pardon?" She asked.

"Derek." He told her.

"Maybe a little." She admitted with a pang of guilt in her stomach.

"Well I hope you guys have a nice life together." He got up and left her room. Lizzie was in the hallway. "What?"

"Are you crying?" She asked.

"Do I look like I'm crying?" He asked.

"No. But I'll help you anyways."

Edwin opened Casey's door. "I'll be in the games closet if you need me." Casey cocked her head. She got up and put on a thin layer of eyeshadow before going to Derek's room. She was now wearing hr favorite skinny jeans with a button-down shirt.

"Ready to go?" She asked him.

"Hold on let me fix my hair." He ran his hand through his hair. "Yep, I'm ready."

"I have the perfect place picked out." She smiled at him.

"Let's go while the night is still young." He opened his door for her to leave.

"Oh, so you treat me like crap until we go on a date? And then you act like a gentleman?" She said to him.

"Yeah I guess." I just want to prove myself to you.

"Good start." She said suspiciously. They walked into the hallway and heard a bang come from the games closet. "What's that?" She asked.

Derek opened the door and they both stood agape at the sight of Lizzie and Edwin tongue-wrestling. "Holy shit." Derek said. Edwin and Lizzie both stopped. "Edwin, do we need to have another talk?" He looked down at both of them.

"No." Edwin said almost challengingly.

"We'll see about that." He said. "Let's go Casey." He gave her a peck on the cheek. He knew it made Edwin burn.

Casey completely glowered at Lizzie before leaving.

"That doesn't mean we can't still." Edwin suggested.

"See ya." Lizzie left him harshly.

Derek put on his leather jacket as Casey slipped on her pink trench coat. "Can I drive?" She asked politely. Derek tossed the keys to her and, she fumbled them a little but caught them. They headed out the front door.

Casey buckled her seatbelt and backed the car out the driveway. She began driving to someplace she'd never been before.


	5. A pizza date

AN: I was writing this chapter and then I got off track and so now I have 2 versions of this chapter. So one version I kept in here. I think this one worked better for the story.

Casey drove into the downtown area of the city. "Where are we going?" Derek asked.

"Just somewhere." Casey said. In her head she answered 'I'm not sure either.' She pulled into the left-hand turn lane.

"Are we going to that new fancy restaurant?" Derek asked. "Because I don't get my paycheck until tomorrow."

"That's not where I was going." She noticed the best pizza place in the town, at least in her opinion. "I'm taking us here." She smiled and hoped he wouldn't know she was improvising.

"A pizza joint?" He asked blankly.

"Yep. You can pick where we have dessert if you want." She was hoping that he would just go with it.

"Sure." He smiled and unbuckled his seatbelt. She let out a quiet sigh. The parking lot was almost filled. They both got out and walked to the front door and when they weren't more than 2 steps in Casey his behind Derek. "What is it?" He asked.

"Nothing. It's just, I don't want to be seen." She said.

Derek held a confused expression on his face. He looked around the restaurant and noticed Max sitting at a table with his on and off girlfriend Amy. "You seriously care if max sees you?" He asked her.

"I care if he sees me with you, no offense." She said gently.

"I think I can handle Max." Derek said. Max seemed too occupied with his date to notice anything else that was happening in the restaurant.

"I don't want you two to get into a fight at a pizza place." Casey warned him. A man dressed in a tee with the restaurant logo on it came over to Derek and Casey.

"How many sir?" He asked in an impatient tone. He was obviously only in college and didn't seem thrilled to be working on a Friday night, which was usually busy.

"Two." Casey said. The waiter took them to a booth, right by Max and Amy. "Are you sure there isn't anywhere else we could sit?" She asked politely.

"Yes I could!" The waiter imitated Casey's voice. "But then I'd have to clean off a table and that would mean doing more work than I was hired to do." He obviously wasn't going to comply with her. "You're server should be here shortly.

Casey scoffed as the waiter left, how dare he be so rude to her. She hid behind her menu as she looked at appetizers. Derek found it amusing that she didn't want to be seen. It was so tempting for him to call over to Max and get his attention. Everyone knew he was only going out with Amy so he wouldn't be single.

Everyone except for Amy, that is. She never noticed how Max still stopped and stared when Casey passed him in the hallway, and how he would always watch her cheer during halftime. It was sad that she thought he was totally committed to her.

A waitress came over in a couple of minutes. She seemed to be in a better mood than the waiter that seated them. "Hey, welcome to Pizza House. Can I start you guys off with something to drink and maybe some appetizers?" She asked.

"Pepsi." Derek said.

"Um, a lemonade." Casey said. "Im not really interested in any appetizers."

"Me neither." Derek agreed.

"Great. I'll be back with your drinks." The waitress said before leaving to tend to another table.

Max and Amy got up from their table with a Styrofoam container. Case hoped that as they passed by, they wouldn't notice her. "Casey?" Max asked. "Derek?"

"Hi Max." Casey put her menu down and acted friendly. "What's up?" She asked even though she was just hoping they would leave.

"We're just out for our 3 month anniversary." Amy smiled. Even though she was friends with Casey she still had her bitch moments. Especially when it came to Max.

"Aww. That's romantic." Casey said sweetly.

"Are you two on a date?" Max asked with a laugh. Casey started to giggle sheepishly.

"Actually, yeah we are." Derek chimed in. Amy started to giggle. She figured Derek was joking. "I'm serious Amy." Derek said. She stopped and watched as Derek reached halfway across the table.

Casey let him grab her hand. She smiled weakly. "First date." She said. She could see the jealousy on Max's face and decided to rub it in.

"I knew it was bound to happen." Max said to the two of them. "Well we gotta go." He said before shoving off.

"Have a great night." Amy said with a wave before following Max.

"Bye." Casey smiled.

"See ya around." Derek said. "Now was that so horrible?" He asked Casey.

"Yes." Casey nodded and released his hand. The waitress cam and placed two glasses on the table.

"Are you ready to order?" She asked.

"Uh," Casey looked over to Derek.

"Order whatever you want, I'll eat anything." He told her.

"Ok then." Casey opened her menu. "A medium thin crust pizza with half sausage and half just plain cheese." She ordered.

"Coming right up." The waitress grabbed their menus and left.

"So." Derek tried to keep things from getting awkward.

"So how long have you liked me?" Casey asked shyly. She organized the sugar packets. It was one of her many neat freak habits.

"Too long." Derek smiled at her. He reached for Casey's hand and she let him take it. "Casey, can I be serious for a moment?" He asked.

"Of course you can." Casey answered him. "What is it?"

"I've had a crush on you ever since I saw you walking down the driveway with your boxes when you moved in." He confessed.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Is that why you stole the picture in the little pink frame of me at one of my dance recitals?" She asked with a smirk.

Derek's eyes widened. "You know I took it?" He asked. He kept it in his room hidden behind his hockey trophies.

"Derek, I keep track of all my stuff. That's how I know Lizzie had my grey sweater, you have the picture, and Edwin has my journal." She frowned while thinking of Edwin. He must've been so hurt to know that she was leaving him for his brother.

"Wow." Derek said to her with a blank expression.

Casey giggled. "It's just another one of my systems." She explained.

"Well," Derek started acting cocky. "There is one system of yours I'd like to get into."

"Der-ek!" Casey pulled her hand away from him. "If you're implying what I think you are." She stopped and looked away from him. "I honestly thought you were a nice guy."

"I am." He told her.

"For some reason I don't believe you." She said.

They sat in silence until their pizza came. They both took a piece. Derek watched her eat and it brought back a memory from when he almost asked her out years ago.

_Derek went with Casey to the coffee shop down the street from Smelly Nellie's. They had been living together for a couple months. It was late and the lack of streetlights freaked Casey out._

_She kept very close to Derek, knowing that he was strong from hockey helped to comfort her. "I should've worn flats." Casey complained to him._

"_You'll be fine." Derek said. He didn't bother to look both ways before starting to cross the street. Before he actually went into the street, Casey grabbed his wrist and pulled him back._

"_Look out." She noticed a car that was going at least 20 mph over the speed limit. "You could've gotten hurt Derek."_

_He liked how she clung onto his wrist. "Thanks." He said to her. He noticed Casey's breath in the air. "Want my jacket?" He asked her._

"_But then won't you be cold?" She asked him. Derek took off his jacket and held it out for her._

"_Nah." He said. Casey took his trusty leather jacket and put her arm through the first sleeve. "Warm?" He asked._

"_Toasty. Thanks!" She said with delight. It wasn't his normal behavior for him to be this nice to her, so she figured a gratitude of thanks was in order. She gave him a peck on the cheek._

_They crossed the street. Derek kept thinking about whether he was going to go through with asking her out or not. He figured maybe it was better to just keep that to himself._

"Aren't you going to eat any?" She asked him. She was already done with her first slice. "You're the only person in the family who likes sausage on their pizza."

"Oh yeah, im starving." He said and began to eat his pizza.

"You always do that when you're nervous." Casey smiled.

"Do what?" Derek asked with his mouth full.

"Chew, swallow, and then talk." Casey told him. "You hold your pizza like it's a burger when you're nervous. When you're not, you eat it with one hand." She explained.

"Or maybe I'm just hungry." Derek didn't want to talk about his feelings.

"Ok, I was just saying." Casey began to back off. They had some more silence as they both finished their pizza. Sometimes she wished things could go back to the way they were when she had just moved in. He would be so nice to her when they were together. But when other people were around they would pretend to hate eachother.

Pretend wasn't the right word, they got on eachothers nerves most of the time. But when others weren't around they were able to put their differences aside, or at least they tried.

_Derek and Casey were in the basement fighting about who should get the new bedroom. Casey sat on the bed "How are we going to settle this?" She asked._

"_That's easy." Derek stood in the doorway. "I'll get what I want." He said before closing the door and sitting next to her._

"_But why can't you just live down here? It's perfect for you." She attempted to sell him the idea._

"_You mean perfect for you." He lifted his arms in the air. "The decorations and wallpaper are way too girly for me."_

"_You'd just cover them with your derogatory posters." Casey pointed out to him. "Plus maybe if we see eachother less we'll be bale to get along better."_

"_That might be nice." Derek agreed with her about something for once. "But I don't want to have to take all of my things and bring them down her and have to arrange it and bother with all the work."_

"_This isn't solving anything." Casey let out a sigh. "We're fighting, our parents are fighting."_

_They stopped to look at eachother "our parents!" They said unanimously._

"_But they'd never go for it." Derek said. "And I'm still hungry."_

"_Fine, I'll take the room. You can have it your way, again." She slouched._

"_Great." Derek put on a smirk and got up. "You coming?" He asked her._

"Casey." Derek waved his hand in front of her face. "I'm finished, are you?" He asked while wiping his mouth.

"Yeah I'm done." Casey put down her crust and brushed her hands together. She took a few more sips from her lemonade before grabbing her purse and standing up. "Do you wanna take the leftovers home to the family?" She asked.

"Nah." Derek shrugged. "We already have leftover pizza at home."

"We do?" Casey asked.

"I think so." Derek placed his tip on the table. "But it doesn't matter."

Casey rolled her eyes and followed him. "Are we going dutch or are you paying?" She asked.

"I'll pay." He said as they got to the cashier podium. It was the same grumpy guy as before.

"Derek Venturi being a gentleman? Wow, obviously you want to make a good impression." She joked.

"Well you're paying for the next date." Derek showed his interest in her.

Casey let a smile come across her face. "Deal." She told him.

"Great. Let's head home before Dad and Nora start to worry." Derek said as they walked out.


	6. A decision made a while back

Casey walked into her room after the date was finished and sat at her vanity area to take off her makeup. She looked at herself proudly. She had managed to win for once, she was able to take control of the situation. She heard a quiet knock at her door. "Come in." She said.

Edwin walked in and stood behind her. "Edwin." She turned in her chair. "Is something wrong?" She asked while noticing his facial expression.

"Casey you can't be with Derek." He tried to warn her.

"Edwin it's over, ok? You and I will never be truly happy together." She turned back around.

"This doesn't have anything to do with me." He spun her chair back around. "There are things you don't know about Derek."

"That's silly Edwin. If there was ever anybody who was transparent in my life, it's Derek." She didn't believe him.

"He has something evil inside of him." He said. Casey gave him a confused glance. "I can't explain it to you, but if you give him your virginity he will just toss you aside like he's done to other girls before." He placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Edwin." She brushed his hand away. "I'm not a virgin. When Sam and I were going out I had sex with him. That was my real first time." She said gently to him.

"What? But you're so innocent and you, but, does anybody know?" Edwin stuttered.

"Sam does." Casey looked down.

"Something happened didn't it?" He asked her.

"Yes. But I'm not comfortable sharing it." Casey explained.

"Ok. But you can't sleep with him, regardless. I know you. You'll die and always look back to regret it. Please believe me." Edwin said to her.

"Fine. I believe you and I trust you because I did love you. For now at least I won't sleep with Derek." Casey said to him in a monotone voice. "Goodnight Edwin." She turned around and finished removing her mascara.

Edwin left and when he had Casey began to cry.

Casey woke up early the next morning. She logged onto facebook and saw all the old pictures of when she went out with Sam. She began to remember when they broke up.

"_Sam you can't leave." Casey stopped him._

"_Why not?" Sam asked her._

"_Even though we're broken up there's something keeping us together." Casey looked to her feet._

"_We both agreed mutually that we were ready Case, which was forever ago anyways." Sam held her hands._

"_No, it's something more than that." Casey put his hands to her stomach. "I'm pregnant Sam." She said with tears._

"_What?" Sam asked._

"_Yeah. I have an appointment at the clinic this weekend and I'm getting an abortion." Casey said to him._

"_Oh my god Casey." Sam hugged her and she cried into his shoulder. "Are you sure that's what you want?" He asked her._

"_Of course, I can't have a baby at 15. What would my mom and Lizzie think of me? How could I handle it all?" She asked him._

"_I don't know but an abortion seems like something you should really think about." Same wiped tears from her face._

"_I have." Casey said. "And I'm getting this done with or without your approval, but I would love it if you would come with me." She told him._

"_Of course I will." Sam hugged her again._

Casey cried like she had the night. She remembered the downward spiral that it took on her life. She looked at her forearms and noticed the faint scars that remained from the few months after she got the abortion when she cut herself.

She pieced herself together though and was able to get through it before things got too bad. She decided to get ready for the day and focus on her homework on this chilly Sunday.

She pulled a pair of sweatpants on over her shorts and a matching hoodie over her tank top. Then she stepped in the hallway. She surveyed Edwin's door and then Derek's. What had pushed her to fall for either of them? She honestly didn't have a huge attraction for them. She felt even more confused than when she was dealing with everything with Sam.

She decided to just go back into her room and surf the internet for a while. She noticed the scissors on her desk that she used when she had cut herself and cried at the sight of them. She knew the one person she could talk to about all of this.

"Casey?" Sam answered the front door to his house. Casey smiled at him with her backpack over one of her shoulders.

"Hey Sam, I know it's early but I was hoping we could do some homework together." She said to him.

"Sure." Sam rubbed his eyes. "Come on in." He opened the door all the way. "My parents went out for breakfast."

"That's ok." Casey felt slightly relieved.

"Why are you here so early?" Sam asked her.

"I just happened to wake up a bit earlier than usual, and we haven't talked for a while." She sat on his sofa with him.

"Ok, what do you wanna talk about?" Sam asked as he slid his backpack over towards the couch.

"I broke up with Edwin first of all." Casey smiled.

"That's cool." Sam shared her grin. "If you think it's a good thing that is."

"Yeah, I'm happy about it. But then I made the mistake of going on a date with Derek." She said in a disgusted voice.

"You shouldn't do that." Sam warned.

"Everybody keeps telling me that Derek is the most horrible guy ever, but once you get past all those layers he's a little sweet." Casey lightly defended him.

"But he's not right for you. Not now at least." Sam explained.

"Right, with his drinking and the prostitutes. But I'm concerned something else is happening." Casey said.

"Like what?" Sam asked.

"Something bad." Casey was becoming frightened. "He threatened Lizzie and Edwin seems afraid of him recently." She explained.

"That doesn't sound good." Sam agreed with her. "I think you should try to figure out what's going on." He suggested. Casey nodded. "Anything else?" He asked.

"No." Casey tried to piece everything together. "Let's just work on homework, I have some questions about Physics anyways." She opened her backpack.

AN: What do you guys think of this chapter. I hope that the flashback gave you a little insight into Casey's character for the story. I also hope you guys noticed the bit of foreshadowing I put into this chapter too. Let me know what you think.


	7. All Hell Breaks Loose

AN: This is the first fanfic chapter I'm typing with my new laptop! And now that I have a laptop I'll hopefully begin to write a bit more often and then start getting some new stories started, so check back for that.

Casey unlocked the front door of the house that afternoon and felt really relieved after talking with Sam. She had a similar butterfly feeling as when she was crushing on him, but managed not to be klutzy around him.

She walked in to find George and Nora standing in front of Edwin, who sat on the couch. "Casey, we were just discussing you." Nora said to her daughter sternly.

"Mom, chill. What's going on?" Casey took off her hoodie.

"We were just talking with Edwin about your, activities, together." Nora said.

"Oh." Casey exchanged a nervous glance with Edwin. "Well that's fine because I have something to tel you then, we both do." She sat next to Edwin.

"We do?" Edwin asked.

"Uh, yeah." Casey assured him. "First of all, we broke up. And we never had sex together. So you guys don't have to worry." She and Edwin stood up to tried and escape.

"oh really?" George stopped them. "Because that's not what it seemed like."

"Dad. Calm down." Edwin said. "We seriously are done with, Casey's with another guy now." Edwin let it slip out.

"Oh is she?" Nora asked.

"Actually no I'm not. I just went on a date with a different guy, but that's it. No second date or anything." Casey explained.

"And you guys know that what you were doing was wrong, right?" George asked them.

"Uh huh." Edwin nodded.

"hell yeah." Casey agreed. Her mom appeared shocked. Casey swore all the time, just not around her parents or Marti.

"Ok then, you guys can go. We believe you." George dismissed them.

"Ok." The step-siblings said in unison and rushed up the stairs.

"So you're not going out with Derek again?" Edwin asked when they reached the outside of Casewy's bedroom.

"No, you were right. He's not the right guy for me." She smiled at him. Edwin smiled and they shared a hug. Edwin went up to his room while Casey walked into hers. She noticed Derek sitting at her desk.

"How's Sam?" Derek asked as he turned to her.

"How'd you know I was with Sam?" Casey asked with her hand on the doorknob.

"You left this up on your laptop." Derek pointed at a picture of Casey sitting on Sam's lap at a restaurant.

"He's doing ok. We were just doing some homework." She tightened her grip.

"You expect me to believe that?" Derek stood and started walking towards her. "Are you cheating on me with him?"

"Derek, we aren't together. And no I wasn't doing anything with Sam, except homework." Casey turned to leave.

"I don't believe you." Derek put his palm to the door and held it closed. He jerked Casey to face him. "And we are together, you don't remember how you were making out with me in my room before our date last night?"

"Derek what are you doing, let go of me." Casey tried to pull away, but failed.

"I opened myself up to you. I have cared for you since you first moved in. Don't shut me out." He leaned in and kissed her. Casey felt her body instantly relax. "You see?" He asked after a long kiss.

"How do you do that?" Casey asked.

"I'm a good kisser what can I say." Derek held her hand and walked her to her bed.

"Wait, I have no attraction to you, we can't do this." She stopped herself from kissing him.

"Just tell me when to stop." Derek whispered in her ear as he pulled her tank top up over her head.

Casey knew in her head and her heart to stop this, but her body had a mind of its own. She kissed Derek softly and sucked on his bottom lip. Derek pulled her onto his lap and pulled off his shirt. Casey dug her nails into his back and made him grimace.

"You Venturi's." Casey murmured. Then she realized Derek was struggling to get his jeans off and what was going on began to sink in. "Stop." She said and got off the bed.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked her with surprise.

"I don't like you and we aren't together and I don't wanna do this. Get out of my room." She told him while putting her shirt back on. Derek became angry and grabbed her waist. "What are you doing? Derek, let go."

"No, I'm convinced that I truly love you. You can't turn me away." Derek pulled her close.

He tried to hold on to her as she struggled for freedom. "What's wrong with you?" She asked as she finally got away.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" Derek grabbed her. Casey lightly hit his chest with her hands as she flailed to get away. When she finally did Derek's knuckles met her face.

Casey felt blood fall out of her nostril and drop from her chin to the floor. Tears blurred her vision. "Get out of here right now?" She demanded.

"I'm sorry Casey, I didn't mean it. I don't want to hurt you." He apologized.

"I don't care. Casey yelled at him. "Get out of my room!" She cried and opened her door for him to leave. Derek kissed her forehead and apologized before leaving. Casey slammed her door and looked over to her vanity mirror.

Blood was covering a large section of her face and she had some bruising on her cheek. She didn't bother to clean her face; she just sat on her floor and sobbed.

Casey walked into the bathroom and wet a washcloth to clean the dried blood off of her face about twenty minutes later. There was a knock at the bathroom door. "Casey?" Edwin's voice asked. Casey knew he was the one to turn to in the house for this.

She opened the door to him and saw his jaw drop. "What happened?" He walked in and closed the door behind him.

"Promise not to tell anybody." Casey continued washing her face. "Derek hit me."

"What?" Edwin was enraged.

"Calm down." Casey said.

"No, I won't. If he hits me that's bad, but if he hits you that's horrible." He stormed out of the bathroom and banged on Derek's door.

"What do you want?" Derek asked as he opened the door.

"You hit Casey. To you that might be ok, but I'm not just gonna stand aside and let her get hurt." Edwin stood up to his abuser.

"What did you just say to me?" Derek looked down at his brother.

"You heard me." Edwin didn't back down.

"Big mistake little bro." Derek grabbed his brother and they began fighting with eachother. Derek had a size and strength advantage and easily pummeled Edwin. Casey noticed that they were both getting seriously injured.

"Guys stop it!" She cried to them. "Lizzie!" Casey cried out to her sister.

Lizzie came out of her room and was shocked by the fighting. "What's going on?" She asked.

"Keep Marti in her room, I'm going to get Mom and George." Casey instructed. Lizzie went into Marti's room and Casey ran down to the dining room. "I need you guys upstairs right now!" Casey said before leading them upstairs to the fight.

George and Nora noticed Casey's bruised face and had heard Edwin crying for help and immediately followed her. They saw both of the boys gravely hurt and had to stop the fight. George got in and pulled them apart. "Stop it this instant!" George yelled.

Derek and Edwin stared eachother down.

"Casey call an ambulance." Nora instructed her daughter.

Derek and Edwin were both rushed to the hospital to get their injuries checked. Nora had a nurse look at Casey's face too. Casey was told that her face would heal within a week and she should be ok. "That's what happened before I came to get you guys." Casey finished reliving the trauma of Derek hitting her and then beating up Edwin.

"That's horrible." Nora said. A doctor came up to the three of them and said they could visit Edwin and Derek. Casey went to go see her two step-brothers. "Doctor how are they?" Nora asked.

"I want to keep them in the hospital overnight for observation, but they should be well enough to come home tomorrow." The doctor explained. "Derek should probably sit out of his next hockey game just to be safe, but he mainly has bruising and a few abrasions."

"What about Edwin?" George asked.

"I'm a bit more concerned about Edwin. He sprained his left wrist in addition to bruising and we needed to give him a few stitches on his head. Mr. Venturi has Derek had a history of fighting with Edwin?" The doctor asked George.

"Not more than any average brothers would." George said.

"Why are you asking?" Nora asked.

"Edwin seems to have previous injuries that are very similar to the ones he sustained during this fight. It looks like Derek might be physically abusing Edwin." The doctor said before walking away. George and Nora looked at eachother with worry.

Casey helped Edwin have a sip of water. "You really didn't have to do that." Casey said to Edwin.

"Of course I had to, I couldn't stand to see you hurt." Edwin explained.

"It was very sweet of you. Derek was acting totally normal and then this crazy rage came out of him all of a sudden." Casey said half to herself and half to Edwin.

"I've been aware of that for a while." Edwin said to her.

"What do you mean?" Casey asked.

"Nothing." Edwin tried to shrug it off.

"No, please tell me." Casey held Edwin's hand.

"Derek's been hitting me and stuff for a while." Edwin said.

"He has?" Casey asked.

"That's why I was so scared when you said you were going out with him. I didn't want him to seriously hurt you." Edwin explained.

"Now it all makes sense, well you don't have to worry anymore. I think George and Nora are going to get some help for Derek." Casey noticed Derek starting to wake up from a nap he was taking. "And thanks for protecting me." She gave Edwin a thank you kiss on the cheek.

"Casey, I am so sorry for everything. I hope you understand I didn't mean any of it." Derek tried to win her back.

"Honestly Derek, you should be less focused on me and more focused on yourself." Casey said before walking out of the room and leaving him.

Derek turned his head to his brother "What did you tell her?" He asked.

"The truth." Edwin answered. "But now neither of us have her and we're in hospital beds all beat up."

"Yeah, and you're a lot stronger than I thought you were Ed." Derek said.

"Truce?" Edwin asked.

"Truce." Derek answered.


	8. Recovery From a Crush

Casey saw Emily and Sam coming through the front doors of the hospital together and ran up to her. "Casey are you all right?" Sam came and hugged her.

"Yeah I'm ok." Casey answered with a tired voice. "And I figured out what happened."

"I can't believe Derek would hit you." Emily looked at Casey's bruised cheek.

"It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks." Casey said so they wouldn't be as worried, but in all honesty it still hurt like hell.

"Are you coming to school tomorrow?" Emily asked.

"Of course, I have a test tomorrow and I'm not gonna let Derek stop me, like usual." Casey said.

"Well we'll be right there with you if you need us." Sam nodded with Emily.

"Sam, Derek has been hitting Edwin for a long time. I think he seriously has some psychological issue or something." Casey explained.

"I'm gonna go see how they're doing." Emily said quickly before walking off.

"Here, let's sit." Sam motioned her to a chair.

"I remember when I told Edwin what Derek did he said that when Derek hit him it was bad, but when he hit it me it was horrible. And then just before you and Em came he said Derek was basically abusing him." Casey explained in further detail.

"I don't see why Derek would od that though." Sam said.

"Me either." Casey shook her head. "But there has to be a reason."

"Definitely." Sam agreed.

Lizzie stood in the front yard by the bushes smoking a cigarette because of all the stress she was going through right now. This was her third one today. She had Marti next door so she wouldn't get caught.

Emily and Casey pulled onto their street and Casey caught a quick glimpse of Lizzie smoking before she rushed to put it out and hide it in the bushes. "Did you see that?" Casey asked in shock.

"See what?" Emily asked.

"Lizzie was just smoking." Casey answered.

"Lizzie, smoking? Like she would ever do that." Emily said.

"I just saw her, she was like hiding it, trying to be sneaky. I can't put up with all of this." Casey leaned back and felt hopeless in a long while.

"Casey, Derek punched you in the face. You're probably just imagining this drama now." Emily tried to calm Casey.

"Maybe you're right." Casey sighed. "It's probably just in my head."

"Well I'll see you tomorrow." Emily said goodbye as Casey gathered her stuff to get out of the car.

"Bye Em." Casey unbuckled her seatbelt. Lizzie smiled innocently at her sister as she walked up the driveway. "Elizabeth McDonald did I just see you smoking?" Casey looked down at her sister.

"What are you talking about?" Lizzie asked. She looked at Casey like she was crazy.

"Yeah, I could've sworn I just saw you smoking a cigarette." Casey looked distressed.

"You must be seeing things because I wasn't, Casey you know I wouldn't do that. All smoking does is help kill you and give you lung cancer and a lot of other bad things." Lizzie said convincingly. Casey was confused. "Casey, you've been through a lot the last few days, you're probably just tired."

"True, you can see your breath out here. I probably just saw that." Casey seemed to believe her little sister.

"Here, let's go inside and I'll bring you up some hot chocolate. But you should probably get some sleep." Lizzie began leading Casey inside. Casey nodded and went inside with Lizzie.

George and Nora were up late that night. They were on their laptop researching psychiatrists in the area to help Derek work through his issues instead of taking it out on his siblings. "How could we have not seen this coming? There were plenty of signs." Nora said as she slid the laptop down to George.

"Of course there were, but how were we supposed to tell this was happening. Edwin never told us, obviously Derek didn't tell us. What were we supposed to do?" George said as he scrolled through a page.

"Lizzie knew too though, and the point is that they didn't feel comfortable coming to us and telling us what Derek was doing. That obviously means something, don't you think?" Nora asked.

"Maybe, but why would they tell us?" George responded.

"Because we're they're parents and they should feel like they can trust us with this information. I mean, they know that if you have a bully you always go to an adult first." Nora said. But if the kids were there they all probably would have responded with a 'yeah right!' or 'are you kidding me?'

"Of course they know, but now we know and that's that. Now we just need to move forward. And the next step is getting Derek some help." George said. Nora seemed to be on the verge of tears. George leaned over and gave her a hug.

When Derek and Edwin came home things seemed to be all right between them. Casey was in her room reading when Edwin knocked on her door. "Come in." She said. Edwin came in and sat on the foot of her bed. "Wow, you already look so much better!" She said to him with excitement.

"Thanks, you do too." He scratched at the back of his head.

"I really want to thank you for standing up for me yesterday." She sat up and smiled at him.

"Thanks, but it was nothing." Edwin smiled and looked down for a second before returning his eyes to hers.

"No." Casey shook her head. "If you hadn't done what you did, Derek would've probably continued hurting me and you both. But you really came to my rescue." She said in a sweet and almost smitten voice.

"It was time that somebody stood up to Derek, and if I hadn't nobody else would've until it was too late." Edwin explained.

"Well, thank you again. It means a lot to me." Casey decided to hug Edwin. His face melted into a smile but returned to normal as soon as it came back into her view.

"Well I'm gonna go and start on my homework now." Edwin got up and went to her door, he started to walk out but turned back around and added "Oh, and Casey."

"Yes?" She asked.

"You were never seriously interested in Derek, right?" He asked her.

"I thought I was for a while, but looking back I never actually was. I think I might be interested in someone else though." She said coyly trying to hint to him.

"Ok." He closed the door and leaned against it. "Of course she likes Sam again." He tilted his head back for a while before going up to his bedroom.

Casey smiled to herself in her room. "Edwin is just so sweet." She said to herself. Her phone began vibrating across her bed. It was a text from Sam that asked how Derek and Edwin were doing. Casey changed her facial expression to a frown. "But Sam is too." She responded to the text saying they were doing good.

She turned off her bedroom light and rolled over to her left side. She knew that she would have trouble sleeping tonight.


	9. Smokin'

AN: Just to avoid confusion, the _italicized_ part of this chapter is Casey's _imagination_ playing tricks on her, and then the **bolded** part is what **actually happened. **And yes, I'm aware of how short this chapter is. But I thought it would be a good clean break right there and then to pick up in the next chapter.

Casey walked out of the bathroom the next morning and went to her dresser to pick out an outfit. She kept contemplating Sam or Edwin. She would have to sit across from Edwin at breakfast, and then seem Sam all day at school, she knew today wouldn't be easy.

Derek came into her room, without knocking as usual. "What do you want?" she asked him.

"_I want you to pick me." He said as he stepped closer to her._

"**I wanted to…say I'm sorry." He sat on her bed.**

"What did you just say?" She turned to him with a frightened expression.

"I'm apologizing." Derek said.

"Ok, I thought you said something else." Casey felt her head for a fever, maybe she was sick and hearing things.

"Yesterday I got way out of line." Derek said to her gently.

"Yeah you did. But why?" Casey sat next to him.

"_Because I knew you were pregnant with Sam's baby before, and you deserved to suffer. You were right to cut yourself back then." Derek grabbed her hand._

"**It's a long story from ancient history. Nothing I need to relive." He grabbed her hand to comfort her.**

"What?" Casey stood up. "How did you know I was pregnant?"

"I didn't. Casey, are you feeling ok?" He asked her.

"No I don't." Casey walked away from him and went into the hallway.

"Did you just say you were pregnant?" Derek asked, following her to the hallway.

"What? Why would I say that?" She said convincingly.

"Are you?" Derek turned her to face him.

"No, you could even take me to a doctor. I'm not." Casey answered honestly.

"Ok. Well are you sick at least?" Derek was showing genuine concern.

"Maybe." Just let me get ready for school, it's gonna take a lot of makeup to hide this black eye." She walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. "Ugh, where's the hairdryer?" Casey opened the door to the bathroom. She heard it blowing in Lizzie's room.

"Lizzie." Casey called quietly.

No response.

"She probably won't hear me if I knock." Casey decided to just walk in. "Lizzie!" She called out loudly upon walking in.

"Casey!" Lizzie said in shock as she threw her lit cigarette out the window and it landed in the white, fluffy snow.

"You were smoking yesterday! And you're smoking now!" Casey closed the door behind her.

"Don't tell mom and George. Please!" Lizzie pleaded to her elder sister.

"Right now I just want to know why." Casey stood demandingly.

"It helps me get away from everything. But I'm not addicted, you can take them away from me and I'll be just fine. Please don't tell mom and George." Lizzie said in a rush.

"Give me your stash, all of it." Casey held out her hand. Within two minutes she had one full box and one that was half full. "Is that all?" Casey raised an eyebrow.

"One more." Lizzie pulled a fresh cigarette out of her pocket and dropped it in Casey's hand. "That's all of them, I swear."

"I'm going to take these and keep them somewhere that you can't get to them. I don't have time to tell mom and George before school so I'll think about whether or not to tell them. But I'm keeping my eye on you." Casey said sternly before walking back to her room.

She opened up one of her desk drawers and dropped the boxes in. She held the single cigarette in her hand and sniffed it. "Ew." She groaned before dropping in in and closing the drawer. She continued getting ready for school.


	10. Casey the problem solver

AN: Just so you guys are aware, it's gonna be awhile before I update again, because I gotta prepare for my first finals ever(!) in just over a week, then I have a choral concert coming up, and then musical practices probably, and possibly throwing my friend a surprise sweet 16 in around a month. So life's a little crazy right now. But I think this chapter will be a good place to put a pause. Build suspense y'know.

Casey sat at her desk going through some old English essays on her laptop, deleting them since all they did was take up space on her hard drive. There was a knock on her door. "Come in." She said in response to the knock.

Lizzie came in and sat nervously on her sister's bed. "Casey, thanks." Lizzie said sheepishly.

"Thanks for what?" Casey turned in her chair to face Lizzie.

"Not telling mom about my bad habit. She would totally freak." Lizzie said.

"Not yet at least. I still might." Casey said as a warning. Lizzie opened her mouth to say something but decided to keep it to herself. "Besides, you're old enough to make your own decisions. Good or bad." Casey continued. "And you should be old enough to know how bad smoking is." Casey pulled out the box that she took for her sister earlier.

"But I'm still young enough where it'll be pretty easy to quit right?" Lizzie felt beads of sweat forming on her brow.

"It should be a little easier to quit at your age. But it's still gonna suck. But being your big sister I've decided to try and help you." She reached back in the desk drawer. "I picked these up after cheerleading today." She tossed a pack of nicotine patches to Lizzie. "I was gonna get you some gum, but this way your breath won't stink."

"Wow, Casey." Lizzie took out a patch and put in on underneath her sleeve.

"But if I ever hear of you or see you smoking again I'll have to get Mom involved." Casey said.

Lizzie nodded and walked to the door. Just before it shut she stepped back into Casey's room. "And Casey?" She said.

"Yeah?" Casey asked.

"Thanks, for everything." Lizzie said. They shared a smile before Lizzie returned to her own room.

Casey sighed after her sister left. "One problem down, one to go." Casey looked at Edwin's Facebook page. His profile picture was of him and Casey pretending to lean on a building in the background. She smiled.

"Casey! Can you come down for a second?" Nora called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh great. What else can go wrong?" Casey got out of her chair and met her mother at the bottom of the stairs. "What's up mom?" Casey asked.

"Do you know where Derek is? Hockey ended twenty minutes ago and he still isn't back." Nora looked at her watch.

"Well if I know Derek, and I think I do, he's probably out eating something revolting with Ralph and Sam." Casey smirked slightly.

"Well he has his first therapy session today and we need to leave in half an hour." She looked over to George who was reading the paper.

"I'll text him and see if I can find him." Casey said. 'But I don't see why this needs to become _my_ problem too.' She thought to herself. She walked up the stairs back to her room and pulled out her phone.

Derek was in the back of his car, with a girl named Anne. He moved some hair out of her face so he could see her eyes that he claimed "sparkled". He was in the middles of putting his shirt back on and she straddled him.

"Derek Venturi, I see why every girl in school is after you." She said to him while tangling her fingers in his hair.

"Yes, but I picked you because your special, like the brightest star in the sky at night." He repeated something that was in Casey's diary one time.

"Aww, that's so sweet." Anne said before leaning in and kissing him. "It's too bad I gotta go shopping with my mom." She pulled her jacket or her shoulders.

"Well call me anytime. I'll try to keep myself available." Derek gave her a charming smile. Anne kissed him again before getting off of his lap and opening the car door. "Bye."

"Bye Derek." She said before walking across the parking lot to her own car.

Derek sat with a smile for a few minutes before his phone started ringing. "Why is Casey calling me?" He asked himself before answering. "Yeah Case?" He asked in an impatient tone.

"Derek where are you?" Casey asked him.

"School." Derek said. He wanted to keep things vague.

"Well my mom asked me to call you and tell you to get your ass home." Casey told him.

"Ok." Derek moved into the driver's seat of his car and started the ignition. "I'm on my way." He said while backing out.

"Get here as fast as you can while still driving safely." Casey said.

"Yeah right. See you soon." Derek said before hanging up.

"De-rek!" Casey said. Then she realized that he hung up before she said that. "I can't believe him sometimes." Casey opened her desk drawer and pulled out all of the cigarettes. "How do I get rid of these without anybody finding out?" She asked herself. She threw them back in the drawer and closed it.

"That's not important right now, I don't know who to choose. Which guy is right for me?" Casey asked while flopping onto her bed. Her phone started to ring. "Hello?" She answered it.

"Hey Casey." A voice answered her.

"Hi Sam. What's up?" She responded happily to Sam's voice.

"I'm having trouble with this stupid calculus homework. Could you come over and help me?" He asked her.

"Yeah, that'd be fun." She said.

"Homework fun?" Sam was confused, but it was Casey he was talking to.

Casey giggled. "I'll be over in half an hour." Casey said.

"Cool." Sam responded. "See you then."

"Bye," Casey hung up. "We'll see tonight if Sam is the one for me." She gathered her school books together and got ready to go visit her ex-boyfriend.


	11. Love or not

AN: I am super, super sorry from the very bottom of my heart that I haven't updated this story in longer than forever. I hope you guys can forgive me. If you can't I totally understand. But I just sorta burned out from the 3 ideas I had for this story, but now I'm on a roll and since I have no homework this weekend I'm gonna work super hard to finish this story.

Casey was all dolled up and ready to go when Derek came walking in the front door of the house. George and Nora were ready to leave and practically pushing him out the door he just came in through. "Derek we need to leave 5 minutes ago." George told his son. "We'll be back soon kids." George called up the stairs before leaving the house.

Casey went into Lizzie's room where she was texting someone. "Lizzie can you watch Marti and Edwin while I help someone with homework?" She asked gently.

"Sure thing, but I have to ask you something first." Lizzie straightened up.

"Anything." Casey smiled while sitting next to her sister.

"Why did you choose Edwin? He's such a bad kisser." Lizzie giggled.

"I don't know." Casey broke out in full laughter. "Derek always says they have the 'Venturi charm' and maybe he's right." She wrapped her arms around her younger sister. "Actually kiddo, I think it was the fact that it wasn't allowed. I've always wanted to do something really bad."

"That seems like something you might do." Lizzie hugged her sister back. "Where are you going anyways?"

"I'm gonna help Sam with some homework." Casey explained while standing up.

"Don't tell me you're going after _another _guy." Lizzie said.

"No, no, don't worry." Casey opened the bedroom door. "I'll be back before curfew."

…...

Derek slumped in the backseat of the car. "Guys, I'm just fine. I don't need to go to the loony bin." Derek protested.

"Derek this isn't the loony bin. All it is, is an office where you can talk to someone about your problems." Nora said calmly to him.

"Is she hot?" Derek asked.

"He's a male and this isn't a time to flirt Derek." George said sternly. "This is a time to sort through whatever issues you might have." The three departed their car and headed inside the building that looked like a house on the outside.

They sat in the waiting room outside of a few offices. Dr. Smith came out of his room. "Mr. and Mrs. Venturi?" He asked.

"Mrs. McDonald-Venturi." Nora corrected

"Ah, I see." Dr. Smith said to them. "I just have some forms for you to fill out while I talk to Derek."

Nora took the clipboard from the psychiatrist as Derek stood up to go into the office. Once in side he sat on the couch across from a couple of chairs.

"Hi Derek, I'm Chris." The doctor shook Derek's hand. He then sat in one of the chairs across from Derek.

"Hey." Derek replied.

"What's been up recently?" Chris asked. Chris seemed to be in his late twenties with blond hair and a diet coke sitting on a small table by his chair.

"Not much. It's just that my whole family thinks I'm insane." Derek said.

"Why would they think that?"

"I don't know. I'm just doing my thing and of course my family has to get in my way."

"How do they do that?"

"Well, they're bringing me here."

"And why are you here, Derek?"

"Well I think that's your job." He said with his typical smirk.

"I mean, why do your parents think you need to be here?"

…...

Sam opened the front door of his house to greet Casey. "Hey." He said the her.

"Hey there." She hugged him.

"I can't figure out the calculus homework." Sam said after the hug ended.

"Ok, I can help with that." Casey said. Sam led her up to his room where he was working on his homework.

"How're Edwin and Derek doing?" Sam asked while sitting next to Casey on the floor.

"They're fine, but I'm concerned about Lizzie." Casey said as she leaned against his bed. "She's been smoking."

"What?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it either." Casey looked down at Sam's homework. "You did the right steps, just in the wrong order."

"Ok." Sam tried the problem again. "What about that?"

"Perfect." Casey smiled up at him. Sam started to giggle after she looked away. "What?"

"Nothing." He said with a smile. Casey kept looking at him. "You just, always did that when you would come over here."

"Do what?"

"Pull your hair back behind your ear when you look away from me."

"Really, I do that?"

"Yeah."

"How do you remember that?"

"I'm not sure, I guess I have a bigger grain than you think." Sam giggled. Casey looked at him with a smile. "It seems like just yesterday."

"I was here yesterday, but not up here in your room." Casey giggled. "I haven't been up here in a long time."

"We did a lot of things up here together." Sam said.

"We really did." Casey slowly moved her head towards his. Sam complied and kissed her softly. It seemed to make time stand still. When the kiss finally ended Sam shot up onto his feet.

"Do you want anything to drink? I'm hungry, I'll be right back." He rushed out of his room.

"My Uncle Ted would get mad at me when I would break something of his. I was only about 6 or 7 when I got this nasty scar on my back from him." Derek said.

"Did your parents know about this?" Chris asked.

"Nope. And I'm not planning on them finding out." Derek crossed his arms.

"You can choose what we do and don't tell to your parents. Everything's confidential unless you're feeling suicidal." Chris assured.

"Cool. But so he did all of that to me." Derek finished.

"Well it seems to me that dealing with the trauma of your Uncle's physical and sexual assaults on you is why you're doing all of these things to your brother."

"Well I get angry and then I get over it."

"By hurting your brother."

"Well he never got to meet Uncle Ted, he died in a car crash when I was 7 and a half. He was drinking and went off a bridge."

"Is there anybody else that you've lashed out at?"

"Lizzie, she's my step-sister and Edwin's age. And Casey." Derek groaned in anger at himself.

"Who's Casey?"

"She's my other step-sister, she's my age and I can't believe I did that to her."

"Why?"

"You seem cool, so I'll tell you. But nobody else can know." Derek said. "I think I'm in love with her, but I can't stand her."

Sam came back to his room with a few sodas to find Casey sobbing on his floor. He set the drinks down and rushed to her side. "Casey, what's wrong?" He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

"Sam I can't do this. I can't take all the pressure." She sobbed into his chest.

"Shh. Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright." He held her close.

"How do you know?" She wiped her eyes. "How do you know that a missile won't come and kill us right now?"

"I can't be 100% sure, but I know that with you around things will be ok." They smiled at eachother.

"You're just saying that." She looked away and pulled her hair back.

"I don't think I am." Sam rubbed her arm. "Just tell me what's on your mind."

"Well," tears came to her eyes again "Derek's in a therapy session right now, Lizzie has a nicotine patch on her arm, Edwin has the hots for me still, and Marti had no idea of any of this."

"That's them, that doesn't have to affect you this much." Sam rested his head on top of hers. "Tell me about you."

"Well, I feel really bad for everything with Edwin and then kissing you just now and I'm so confused."

"If I know you, and I think I do, you'll figure everything out in the end."

"Probably." Casey sniffled. "Why are you so nice to me?"

"Because we're friends." Casey rested her head on his chest.

"Yep, best friends." She said. One last tear trickled down her cheek.


	12. One more hit

AN: I'm so bad at keeping up with this story, so will probably be putting up my short bursts of story as they come along. Thanks for being so patient with me and sticking with the story.

Lizzie looked around Casey's room for the cigarettes she had confiscated earlier. "I just want one more." She lied to herself while opening the desk drawer. "One more hit before I quit." She pulled out her lighter and lit it up."

"We're home." Nora called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh, shit." Lizzie ran to her room and opened the window. She threw the smoke out as fast as she could before shutting it. "Good, there isn't much smell."

Derek stumbled up the stairs and closed his door behind him. "There's not way I'm gonna take some stupid bi-polar meds." He muttered to himself. He couldn't believe that the doctor thought he actually had a legitimate problem in his head.

Lizzie came down to greet her mother after putting on an extra spray of perfume to hide any smell that she could detect. "How'd things go?" She asked innocently.

"Nora sighed before replying with a half convincing "good." and walking away. George seemed to be preparing for a nap on the couch. Lizzie went back up to her room and shut the door.


	13. I love you too

Casey giggled while sitting up on Sam's bed. "Ok, would you rather fail math or history?" She asked in an attempt to play a juicy game of would you rather.

"You call that a dangerous question?" Sam asked. "History." He laughed while laying on his bedroom floor. "Would you rather make out with Emily or Kendra?"

"Ew, neither." Casey giggled again. They started playing silly games like this to lighten the mood. "And my questions are dangerous."

"No they aren't, choose." Sam laughed.

"Kendra." She said. "Would _you _rather make out with Derek or Ralph?"

"Imitation question, nice." Sam said while getting up on his bed. "Ralph."

"Good answer." Casey smiled while rolling onto his stomach.

"Would you rather go out with Edwin," He said. Casey immediately got up. "or me?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Casey said while Sam sat up.

"Because I want to know." He said softly.

Casey looked down and took a breath to collect her thoughts. She looked back up with a tear in her eye. "You." She whispered so he could barely hear.

"What?" He had to ask to be sure.

"I choose you." She said. Not more than 3 seconds after she said that did Sam lean in to kiss her. After it ended more tears came out of Casey's eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked while wrapping his arms around her.

"Because now I have to hurt someone." She said while letting the warmth of his arms seep into her body.

"Edwin will understand." He said while releasing her. "He's a smart guy."

"You're right." Casey said, instantly perking up. "And I can help Lizzie and Derek too!" She said while getting off the bed and putting all her things back in her bag. "Thank you Sam, I need to go though. My family needs me."

"Of course." He said while looking very anxious.

"What is it?" Casey asked while sitting back down.

"Nothing." Sam said. He kissed her goodbye, and Casey knew.

"I love you too, Sam." She whispered in his ear before going.


	14. Checklist

AN: We're getting close to the end here folks, finally. Don't worry this isn't the last chapter, just know that its coming.

Casey pulled into the driveway, with a checklist of things to do in her head.

_Straighten things up with Edwin_

_Find a way to get rid of Lizzie's cigarettes_

_talk to Derek about the bet and our date and Sam_

_See if Mom needs help cooking dinner_

_Finish homework_

_See what else is going on_

She pulled the seatbelt off of her body. She hesitated to open the car door to face life. "You can do this Casey." She whispered to herself.

She fumbled with her keys while attempting to unlock the front door. She walked inside and put her coat and purse to their usual sitting places and looked up the stairs anxiously. "He's going to hate me." She murmured.

"Who?" George was waking from a nap.

"Nobody." Casey said quickly.

"Ok." George said. Casey took a couple steps up the stairs before he added in "Oh, and Casey."

"Yeah?" She responded.

"Try to go easy on Derek for the rest of the day, he's had a long day." George warned.

"I'm always nice to him." She responded half sarcastically. "He just lives to torment me." She noticed the serious look on her step-father's face. "Don't worry, I probably won't even see him until dinner." She continued up the stairs.

She went to her room and ran a brush through her hair quickly. She noticed a picture in a frame on her dresser of the family. Derek was giving Marti a piggyback ride while Casey was posing with Edwin and Lizzie. Casey ran her finger around Edwin's figure in the picture.

That gave her some new found courage. She walked out of her room and went straight to Edwin's door. She knocked a couple times, then she became nervous again. But before she could walk away, Edwin answered the door with a juice box in his hand.

"Hey!" He greeted her with a smile.

"Hey." She said quietly. "Can I come in?"

"Of course." He said while gesturing her in. He appeared concerned. "Something wrong?"

"Yes and no." Casey said while sitting on his bed. "I went to see Sam today."

"Ok, did something happen?" Edwin asked.

"Well, I was telling him about everything that's been going on and he really helped me think through things and feel more relaxed and then I realized something, pretty important." She said while avoiding eye contact.

"What did you realize?" Edwin asked. He wanted to take her hand, but decided not to.

"I don't like you Edwin." She blurted out. "I mean, in a brotherly way, I love you." She tried to cushion the blow she was giving. "But I'm not interested in you romantically or anything like that."

"_I'm not sure that I ever was..." She said in her head._

"Well, then." Edwin was trying to come up with something to say. "I can't say I'm surprised, and I can't say I'm happy. But I can say that I'm going to be ok and I don't want you to feel bad."

"Are you sure?" Casey asked.

"Of course." Edwin smiled. "We're family, we're always gonna be there for eachother. Even through stuff like this."

"This went way better than I thought it would." Casey smiled. "So I'll see you at dinner?"

"Everyday." Edwin smiled back. They shared a hug before Casey left to complete her checklist. After she was gone Edwin sat at his desk. "Dammit." He said while hitting the desktop. He knew that he would get over her, but he also knew it would take time.


	15. Take tablet once daily

Casey walked to her bedroom and opened the desk drawer where she held Lizzie's cigarettes. She grabbed the unopened box and the box that was half full, but she couldn't find the single cigarette. "What the hell?" Casey asked herself aloud.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked while heading back to his room from the bathroom.

"I can't find the last cigarette." Casey said without thinking. She turned to see Derek's shocked face. "They aren't mine."

"Then whose are they?" Derek asked sternly while walking into Casey's room.

"It's kind of a secret." Casey said awkwardly.

"What's up with you lately?" Derek asked while sitting on her bed. "You secretly date Edwin, you go out with me, you say you're not pregnant, but you told me you were a virgin, but I know you screwed Sam. Then you went to Sam's house without any explanation, and now I find you looking frantically for a smoke." Derek seemed very confused.

Casey took a deep breath and considered the situation. "Can I trust you?" She asked.

"Yeah." Derek said.

"I'm being really serious here Derek." Casey said sincerely.

"I may try to bug you all the time, but if you really need to tell me something serious, I can keep it between us." He said honestly,

"Okay." Casey ran to door and closed it. She thought about the severity of what she was going to tell him, and decided to sit next to him on the bed. "When Sam and I were dating, we went out to this party his neighbor was having. That was the night we had sex."

"I need to stop you there." Derek waved his hands in front of her. "Now I'm thinking about you and Sam having sex, please don't be full frontal."

"Don't worry. I wasn't going to give you a play by play." She smiled at his discomfort.

"Ok, good." Derek nodded.

"So we went back to his place while his parents were still at the party. And I sort of agreed that I was ready to-" She noticed Derek getting uncomfortable again.

"But the point is, I lied to him. I wasn't ready." She felt her eyes begin to well up. "And he didn't even wear a condom." She tried to keep herself from crying. "I didn't even realize it until after he-"

"Seriously?" Derek seemed surprised.

"Yeah, and I was on the pill but it wasn't enough. I was pregnant." Casey felt the tears start to leave her eyes. "But I knew neither of us were ready, so I got an abortion."

"I'm sorry." Derek said. And, to Casey's surprise, he wrapped her in his arms.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked his wet shoulder.

"Because you're my step-sister. It's kinda my job." He laughed.

"Well you have been very bad at your job." She giggled. They shared a laugh. "But, I felt so guilty for getting an abortion. Nobody knew except Sam, the doctor, and me. Not even my mom knew. I felt like I was losing a part of me, like I killed a part of me."

Casey started to feel angry at herself, in addition to the sadness she felt. "So I began to hate myself for doing that, so much. I figured that if I could kill a part of me, then the rest of me deserved to be punished also."

"What did you do?" Derek asked.

"I-I-I can't say it." Casey let more tears fall to her jeans and bedspread. "But I can, show you." She slowly pulled up her sleeves to show her forearms.

"I don't see anything." Derek said.

"I know. They're pretty faint, thank god." Casey pointed to a few of the lines left from her cutting.

"Casey why?" Derek asked. Casey shook her head. Derek grabbed her face and made her look him in the eye. "Why would you do that?" He asked almost angrily.

"Because I was so ashamed." She sobbed out. "But I stopped after a few months. I always tell people I'm a virgin because I don't want to remember any of it. I haven't had sex with anyone since Sam, it hurts."

"Sam obviously didn't know what he was doing, it shouldn't." He tried to stop her crying. He hated tears.

"And you would know this Mr. 'I know you're worthy of my viginity'." Casey mocked him jokingly.

"I hear things." Derek shrugged.

"Of course." Casey laughed a little.

"So explain this whole Edwin thing to me." Derek said.

"This is probably going to sound bad, but he was sorta half rebound from Truman, half trying to be rebellious. He always would be so nice and excited about everything. But I never really was attracted to him." Casey said.

"And me?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I tried to distract you from the hookers and alcohol with the bet. It worked, but then somehow I got wrapped up in you. Which I still don't completely understand. Plus, I liked how Max got pissed when he saw us together. But once we got back home, I realized it wasn't enough." Casey explained. "Sam stuck with me through a tough time so I asked him for advice. Then we got back together, I think." She cocked her head in confusion. "I think we did. I told him I loved him, because he tried to tell me and failed. I really do. I didn't back then, even though I thought I did. But I do now."

"Good for you?" Derek said as a question.

"It's a good thing." Casey giggled.

"Ok." Derek smiled, He wouldn't admit it, but he was happy for them. "Now, what about the smokes that you say aren't yours?"

"They really aren't mine." Casey looked around her room to make sure nobody had snuck in. "They're Lizzie's."

"What?" Derek asked in disbelief. "Bullshit." He claimed.

"I'm serious. I caught her smoking one in her room. I told her to give me all the cigarettes she had." Casey walked over to her desk where the boxes sat on. "She gave me an unopened one, half a box, and a single one that she had in her pocket. But now I can't find that one."

"Well, did she know where you kept them?" Derek asked.

"She might've seen them when I opened the drawer to give her some nicotine patches. But if she had those, then why would she need another cigarette?" Casey asked.

"I don't know, I don't smoke. But I would ask her about it if I were you." Derek stood up. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Uh...How'd you're appointment go?" Casey asked brightly. She felt ten times better getting everything out to somebody.

"Sorry, that's confidential." Derek smirked and walked out of her room. He walked into his room and laid in his bed for a well deserved nap.

Casey opened the drawer again to look for the missing cigarette again. She decided to dispose of the boxes before getting too concerned about it. She pulled a baggy sweatshirt on and stuffed them in the pocket.

She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, Marti was watching cartoons. "Hey, where's Mom and George?" Casey asked.

"They went into the basement." Marti said without looking away from the screen.

"Ok, thanks." Casey said while walking swiftly into the kitchen. She opened the cabinet below the sink to reveal the garbage can. She looked around for something to push the boxes towards the bottom of the can. She took a handful of paper towels and pushed into the garbage. 'Ew, ew, this is so gross.' she thought to herself.

Barely two seconds after closing the cabinet, her mom emerged from the basement. "Hey Case." She smiled at her daughter.

"Hey mom!" Casey faked a smile. She went through the checklist she made in her head before and thought about what else needed to be done.

_Straighten things up with Edwin_

_Find a way to get rid of Lizzie's cigarettes_

_Talk to Derek about the bet, the date, and Sam_

_See if Mom needs help cooking dinner_

_Look for the missing cigarette/talk to Lizzie about her quitting process_

_Finish homework_

_See what happened during Derek's appointment_

"What are you making for dinner?" Casey asked.

"I figured we've all been pretty busy and stressed out this week with everything. So I was planning on ordering some pizza." Nora said.

"Sounds great." Casey smiled. She headed upstairs to work on her homework.

Derek looked at the bottle his new meds were in. "Maybe I should take these." He said reluctantly. "Take tablet once daily. With or without food. Easy enough." He opened the lid and popped a pill. "We'll see if anything happens."


	16. Sisterly advice

AN: Only a couple more chapters. 2 or 3. So I'm really hoping I don't disappoint. I'm also having a complete spree of inspiration for this story right now, so I might finish writing it today. But I probably won't post all that I write today. *insert winky face here* Please review.

Casey finished her homework and knew she only had one major problem left to figure out. The missing cigarette. She knocked on Lizzie's door. "Come in." Lizzie said.

Casey walked into the room to find Lizzie reading a book. "Hey kiddo." Casey said shyly.

"What's up?" Lizzie asked while setting the book down.

"I wanted to talk more about your smoking." Casey said after shutting the door. She sat down on the bed by her sister.

"What about it?" Lizzie seemed defensive.

"Don't worry, I didn't run and tell mom or anything. I've kept bigger secrets from her than this, I can relate." Casey smiled. "I just want to know why you would do that? You know how bad it is for you."

"I know, and I was totally aware of the consequences when I tried it. But once I started, they seemed to not matter as much because, it made me feel good." Lizzie explained.

"Well, they do matter." Casey said. "It only takes one try to ruin your life. You just don't know what you give up."

"You're right." Lizzie smiled. "It's not worth it."

"I'm glad you realize that." They shared a sisterly hug. "When I'm off at college you're going to have to give advice to Marti like this. I think you'll do a great job."

"Thanks." Lizzie smiled some more.

"Speaking of smoking, I kinda lost one of the cigarettes I took from you. That single one from your pocket." Casey said.

"Oh, ok." Lizzie said hesitantly.

"You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" Casey questioned her.

"Well," Lizzie sighed. "I do. I took it. I was going to smoke it."

"Even after I gave you the patches?" Casey asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to have that last one as like a goodbye sort of thing." Lizzie explained. But then Mom came home and I couldn't. That's the only one I took, I swear. I've kicked it. No more cigarettes for me."

"Well I'm glad." Casey said. She stood up. "Dinner should be here soon. Mom ordered pizza."

"That's nice." Lizzie said. "See you at dinner?"

"Of course." Casey smiled. She left the room. For the first time, she didn't see Lizzie as just her little sister, or the girl she called 'Kiddo', but she saw her as a girl that was growing up and turning into a young adult.


End file.
